Fablehaven: The Complete Series (203 page)

“Should I dive down?” Tanu asked.

“I saw you could barely stay afloat,” Trask said. “You’re like me—too much gear. Give the others a few more seconds.”

Mara came up first, taking deep, controlled breaths. “Berrigan has it,” she reported. “The key was too heavy. I could barely make upward progress with it.”

Several seconds later, Berrigan and Elise surfaced together. They swam over and heaved the iron key into the canoe.

“I don’t know how she did it,” Berrigan said, nodding at Mara. “When we found her, she was on her way up, but she still had to be forty feet under.”

“The key sank a long way before I caught up,” Mara responded. “I found it sliding down the underwater slope of the island. It was slow going.”

“Butterfingers,” Vincent lamented. “My bad. The flood caught me off guard.”

“It’s hard to swim with it,” Berrigan said. “No harm done.”

“Are we going to drown?” Seth asked, glancing up at the ceiling. The water level continued to rise.

“Good question,” Trask said. “Did any of you notice an exit down there?”

Mara shook her head. “I looked, but didn’t see any exits or keyholes. Of course, I couldn’t see everywhere.”

“Could you see the floor?” Kendra asked.

“Yes. Maybe twenty feet below the lowest point of my dive.”

“Do you feel all right?” Seth asked. “Can’t you get the bends from coming up too fast after a deep dive?”

Elise smirked. “We weren’t that deep. Plus, decompression sickness is less of a threat when free diving. You know, with only the air in your lungs.”

“Meanwhile, the water keeps rising,” Vincent pointed out.

“Let’s hunt for another keyhole,” Trask decided. “Do I have it right that Mara, Elise, and Berrigan are our best swimmers?” There were no objections. “You three explore underwater as best you can. The rest of us will look up. Let’s find an evacuation tunnel or a keyhole.”

Still holding the canoe, Kendra dipped her head under the water and watched as Berrigan, Elise, and Mara swam away and down in different directions. With her eyes below the surface, and the water no longer bubbling, the under-water scene was surprisingly clear and well-lit, although Kendra could not clearly discern whether she could see all the way to the bottom.

“The water isn’t bubbling anymore,” Kendra said after bringing her head up. “It feels cooler.”

“The temperature is dropping,” Tanu remarked. “The potion isn’t stopping you from perceiving the heat. It just helps reduce the damage.”

“This feels like a medium hot tub,” Seth said, eyes upward.

“Won’t matter what temperature it is once it fills to the ceiling,” Vincent muttered.

“The ceiling is irregular,” Trask said. “We’ve got sort of a chimney over by that corner.” He pointed at a square gap in the ceiling. “Hard to say how high the shaft goes, but we should get under it. That will be our last resort.”

Mara popped up near the wall above the submerged entryway. “Water is still flowing in. I checked around the entryway but found no keyhole.” Without awaiting a response, she ducked back under the water.

Kendra scoured the walls and ceiling, searching with increased intensity as the ceiling drew nearer. Berrigan, Elise, and Mara surfaced periodically, reporting no success. The temperature of the water continued to fall until it was barely lukewarm.

“Tiny perforations in the ceiling,” Vincent remarked. “See them?”

“I see them,” Trask confirmed.

“Those teensy holes mean this is a death trap,” Vincent said. “The air escapes through the holes so the room can fill up without forming air pockets.”

“I guess you don’t have any anti-drowning potions,” Seth said.

“Don’t I wish,” Tanu chuckled darkly. “We might try a gaseous potion, but the effects won’t work underwater, and I don’t think those holes are big enough to use as an exit, even as a gas. Your form could get too dispersed, and that would be the end of you. As a last resort, I suppose we can try. You and Kendra each have a gaseous potion, and I have three extras.”

The smooth ceiling was now within reach. Trask called Berrigan, Elise, and Mara over to the canoe the next time they surfaced. All three looked exhausted and waterlogged. They positioned the canoe under the square gap in the ceiling. Kendra stared up. The sheer chimney would accommodate the canoe if they kept it at a diagonal, from one corner to the other. She could see the ceiling at the top of the shaft, a long way up, glossy and smooth. It felt like she was gazing up from the bottom of a well.

As the water level reached the ceiling of the room, the little group drifted up into the shaft, clinging to the canoe. With considerably less volume, the shaft filled much faster than the chamber below. The canoe carried them upward at an alarming rate. The top rapidly drew near.

“I don’t see holes in this ceiling,” Tanu said. “So much for the gaseous potion.”

“I see an offshoot near the top,” Mara declared.

“You’re right,” Kendra agreed. “A little shaft branching off to the side.”

“We’d better flip the canoe,” Trask said. “It will create an air pocket. Tanu, grab the key.”

Once Tanu had snatched the iron egg, Trask flipped the canoe. They all kept hold as the ceiling approached.

“Don’t go under the canoe until you must,” Trask ordered. “We’ll deplete the oxygen soon enough.”

“I’ll explore the side tunnel,” Berrigan said. “Give me the key.” Tanu handed it over. Berrigan scrambled inside as soon as the water level reached high enough, wriggling forward on his belly due to the cramped confines. Water slurped into the little tunnel behind him. An instant later, the side shaft was flooded, and the bottom of the canoe bumped against the ceiling. Kendra raised her chin, her nose brushing the ceiling as she inhaled a final panicked breath before the water filled to the top.

Holding her breath, Kendra stared after Berrigan. He disappeared around a corner in the side shaft. The water felt cool now. Vincent swam into the overturned canoe. Trask motioned for Kendra to follow.

Her head came up in the enclosed space beside Vincent, who was panting. The air smelled like wet wood. “This is our only air pocket,” Vincent complained. “Not a bit outside. There must be holes somewhere, in the corners or something, maybe so small we can’t see them.” He paused as if an afterthought had occurred to him. “Or maybe the place is simply unnatural.” He gave a thin chuckle. “I guess now would be a bad time to mention that drowning has always been my greatest fear.”

“It was never a goal of mine,” Kendra said, trying to stay brave.

Seth surfaced inside the canoe. The others surfaced as well.

“No sign of Berrigan,” Mara said. “I’m going after him. There’s a chance this little tunnel leads to a way out.”

“Go,” Trask agreed.

Mara dove into the side shaft.

Trask looked from Kendra to Seth. “Unless they return reporting a dead end, once the air goes stale, we’ll follow.”

Vincent had his eyes squinted shut, his lips moving soundlessly. Kendra trembled. There were too many heads inside the little air pocket under the canoe. The air would soon go bad. What would drowning feel like? Would she pass out before she inhaled water? Would inhaling liquid instead of air provide any consolation, any illusion of breathing? She didn’t want to know. She tried not to think about it.

“What a way to go,” Seth mumbled.

“We’re not dead yet,” Tanu said.

Kendra ducked under the water and stared into the shaft. Mara was already out of sight. Kendra stayed down, watching hopefully. Mara shot back into view, returning swiftly. The water level began to drop! Kendra screamed with joy, the sound distorted in the water, bubbles rising from her lips. Mara hurried forward. Kendra glimpsed Berrigan behind her. Then the water was dropping fast enough that the side shaft passed out of sight.

Kendra surfaced. Trask and Tanu righted the canoe, and everyone grabbed hold. Mara dropped from the shaft, entering the water with her toes pointed and without hitting anybody. A moment later, Berrigan hit the water the same way, plunging through a tight slot between Vincent and Trask. Soon Mara and Berrigan clutched the canoe as well.

“There was a keyhole at the end of the tunnel,” Berrigan said, holding up a smaller iron egg. “This place was designed by very cruel people.”

The canoe dropped out of the shaft, and the water level continued to fall rapidly. Despite her excitement, Kendra’s teeth began to chatter. The water was becoming truly cold.

“The water is flowing out faster than it came in,” Mara said.

“Just what I need,” Vincent griped, “to get sucked down a giant drain.”

Kendra watched the walls, hoping a new tunnel would come into view. The water level kept plummeting.

“The water’s getting really cold,” Seth said.

“Too cold,” Trask agreed. “Something is wrong.”

“It’s going to freeze,” Mara predicted.

Trask heaved Kendra into the canoe. Tanu boosted Seth. Berrigan dropped the key inside.

“To the island,” Trask ordered.

The island did not yet exist. The water level was still too high. Kendra watched as the others frantically stroked toward the center of the room. As the tip of the island came into view, a fragile skin of ice formed on the surface of the water. Tearing through the film of ice, Mara reached the island first, followed by Berrigan. The water level continued to drop, revealing more of the island. Elise scrambled onto the slick, black rock. Trask and Tanu followed, their bodies crashing through the thickening crust of ice until they lunged out of the freezing water.

As the surface became solid, the water level stopped dropping. The ice pinned Vincent. His head, shoulders, and arms stuck out of the frozen surface just a couple of yards shy of the island. As he tried to boost himself up, chuckling and gasping, the ice around him shattered. He disappeared completely under the water, and before he came up, the surface had refrozen.

Below Kendra, the canoe cracked, squeezed by the swelling ice. Mara sprawled forward onto the ice, over the place where Vincent had gone under, hatchet in hand, Berrigan gripping her ankles. The ice held her without cracking. She hacked at the surface, chopping chips of ice free.

After a moment she paused. Moving to one side, she wiped away stray wedges of ice and stared down. “It keeps freezing deeper and deeper,” she reported. “Vincent is panicking. He keeps pushing off the ice to avoid getting trapped, which is driving him farther from the surface. There must be more than four feet of ice between us already. I can barely see him. Now I can’t.”

Kendra and Seth climbed out of the canoe onto the solid ice. Tanu, Trask, Berrigan, and Elise joined Mara in attacking the ice, using knives and swords. Seth drew his sword and chiseled at the ice as well.

Kendra had lost her sword. As the others diligently burrowed, she monitored their pathetic progress in shock, trying not to dwell upon the unseen tragedy happening below her feet. Was Vincent already encased in ice, trapped motionless? Was he conscious? Was he frantically diving deeper, seeking to escape the inevitable as his breath ran out? Were they even digging in the right spot? After passing out of sight, he could have moved off in any direction.

“This is like trying to dig through concrete,” Seth growled in frustration.

“The ice seems unnaturally hard,” Mara grunted, swinging the hatchet with urgent determination.

Kendra sank to her knees, feeling the cold of the ice through her wet pants. Minutes passed. Kendra shivered. Did the others really believe they would rescue Vincent? He was gone. Hopelessly gone. It wasn’t fair, or nice, but it was true.

Scanning the room, Kendra noticed a new passage where one had not existed before. Despite the tragedy, all she could think was that they had to hurry and move on before Torina and the zombies showed up and Vincent’s sacrifice was wasted. She felt numbly detached, watching the others scrape up ice shavings. With hysteria gnawing at her numbness, she wanted to stay detached.

At last Trask stood. They had barely carved their way two feet down. “Rescuing Vincent is a lost cause,” he sighed.

“A new tunnel has opened,” Elise said softly.

“We had better move on,” Trask advised reluctantly. “None of us would want the mission to fail in a vain attempt to retrieve our corpse.”

“I should have moved faster,” Mara hissed, still chopping with her hatchet, eyes fixed on the slowly growing crater in the ice. “He was above the ice. He had almost made it. If I had reached for him an instant sooner—”

“You may well have plunged through the ice with him,” Trask finished. “It happened too quickly and caught all of us off balance. I should have boosted him into the canoe with Kendra and Seth.”

“Which might have swamped the canoe,” Tanu said. “We could have lost all three.”

“If we’re not going to dig, we need to get going,” Elise warned. “This trap cost us a lot of time.”